By Marney Blom
In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, 2023 — the date following the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War — the Gaza-based terrorist organization, Hamas, sent thousands of deadly rockets and missiles into Israel and infiltrated the Jewish state by air, sea and land. Hardest hit were Israel’s southern Jewish communities, IDF bases and military outposts, yet areas as far north as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also came under rocket fire. Twenty-one Israeli communities were surrounded and captured by Hamas and 260 youth were massacred at a music festival.
Grotesque images soon flashed across the globe of Hamas’ capture and slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians — men, women and children. IDF soldiers were also counted among the dead.
To date, 1000 Israelis have been murdered, 3,000 injured, over 100 are being held hostage and more than 5,000 rockets have been fired into Israel, according to the perpetrators. The severity of the attack is unprecedented. This is Israel’s 911.
Why the colossal intelligence failure? How was Hamas able to breach Israeli security and infiltrate so quickly, and why did it take so long for the Israeli Defense Forces to arrive to defend their southern communities occupied and butchered by Hamas? Stark questions have yet to be answered.
ESCALATION OF WAR
To date, up to 400,000 troops have been mobilized, mostly to Israel’s southern border with Gaza, in anticipation of a massive and potentially bloody land invasion by Israeli troops into Gaza. In a public address to the nation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aggressively confirmed the upcoming offensive saying, “Every point where Hamas is operating [within Gaza] will vanish.”
Israel has also cut off food, water, fuel and electricity from entering Gaza from Israel because according to Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, “We are fighting barbaric [terrorists] and will respond accordingly.
Citizens living in Israel’s north have been directed to move south out of harm’s way as Israel braces for a second warfront. In recent weeks, the militant terrorist group entrenched in southern Lebanon has signaled its war preparedness and an itch to ignite its estimated 150,000 rockets, missiles and mortars — all pointed at targets within Israel. If launched, the rain of rockets will far surpass Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system’s capabilities to intercept incoming rocket fire.
Several Hezbollah rockets fired into Israel have resulted in an exchange of Israeli and Hezbollah artillery and rocket fire along Israel’s northern border. Armed Hezbollah suspects that entered Israel from the north by land were immediately killed.
As conflict in the north is anticipated to escalate, rockets continue to be fired into Israel from Gaza, some, however, hitting Arab communities. On Monday, October 9, a mosque in Abu Gosh, an Arab town in the vicinity of Jerusalem, was struck.
Why the large-scale Hamas invasion? And why now?
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah are all Iranian proxies and therefore fuelled, supplied, supported and trained by Iran. The Abraham Accords — bilateral agreements on Arab-Israel normalization — currently being tabled between Israel and the wealthy and powerful Sunni Muslim state of Saudi Arabia represent an unprecedented peace deal that could build an economic and military alliance and a formidable barrier to Iran, a Shiite Muslim nation, and its commitment to annihilate the Jewish state.
And why now? Months of large-scale protests over the Israeli government’s proposed judicial reform have divided and weakened the nation and as such, have created an opportunity to strike.
However, a growing body of sceptics believe there is more to the story, and it isn’t being told in the mainstream media. If a cat approaching the Israel-Gaza border fence can set off alarms, how is it that 1,500 Hamas terrorists on tractors, jeeps, motorcycles, hand gliders and by foot are able to breach and bulldoze the border fence at thirty locations? MidEast correspondent Avi Lipkin contests that both Mossad and the CIA would have known that a large-scale offensive was in the works, and he points the finger directly at former prime minister Ehud Barack.
Conjectures aside, Israel as a nation is suffering greatly. How do we as Christians respond and how do we pray?
To be continued. Watch for Israel’s 911: The unfolding events part 2
Marney Blom is news director for the Acts News Network
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